We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.
– Anais Nin

Kirsten Haugen, Director of Professional Growth and Research for Dimensions Educational Research Foundation, shared a powerful story from LinkedIn, “But They’re So Clean,” by Priyanka Handa Ram, an educator from Botswana and a World Forum Foundation Global Leader for Young Children.

In explaining the reason for her article, she provides this background:

“We recently had a visitor at our playgroups — joyful, vibrant spaces led by local women, full of learning, play, and laughter.

Do you know what shocked her the most?

‘How come all these children are so clean?’

Not the quality of the programming.

Not the transformation in children’s learning. Not the power of women leading early education in their own communities.

Cleanliness. Because what she really meant was: ‘Why don’t they look poor?’

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. In this article, I unpack why this question — and the assumptions beneath it — reveal so much about how poverty is still viewed through a single, often harmful lens and why I’ve sat with this discomfort for 6 months.”